THIS is the moment plain clothes police chase down a thief and return a bag to its owner before he even knew it was gone.
Shocking CCTV footage show Emad Lechhed steal the valuable accessory outside a pub on Cannon Street, London.
Facebook/City Of London PoliceEmad Lechhed bends down and picks up the bag as if it is his own[/caption]
Facebook/City Of London PoliceThe 26-year-old calmly walks away from the busy pub[/caption]
Lechhed, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to four months in jail for theft
The 26-year-old scoped out his target, on Martin Lane, and hovered in the area before pinching the bag on June 12.
The clip shows Lechhed, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, blue jeans, and sunglasses, calmly walk past a bustling pub.
He simply kneels down and picks up a black bag from the floor, as if it belonged to him.
The thief takes advantage of a split second the owner’s back is turned from the street.
But, within moments, three plain clothes police officers appear from nearby and chase the yob.
They pursue him through busy streets and navigate congested London roads.
The 26-year-old discarded the item as he was running, before being caught and detained on London Bridge in five minutes.
Inspector Dan Green, of the City of London Police’s proactive acquisitive crime team, said: “The stolen bag, and the contents, was soon returned to the owner, before they knew it was stolen.
“The victim was full of praise for our officers when he got his bag back so quickly and we made an arrest.
“This is another fantastic result from our plain-clothed officers.
Facebook/City Of London PoliceThree plain clothed police officers chase the thief down[/caption]
Facebook/City Of London PoliceWithin five minutes they had arrested him on London Bridge[/caption]
“Our warning to criminals; don’t come into the City to steal bags. If you do, you risk being spotted by our plain-clothed officers, who will track you down, arrest you and bring you to justice.”
Lechhed, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to four months in jail for theft.
He was also slapped with a criminal behaviour order which prevents him from entering the Square Mile for two years.
Recent figures revealed how phones are stolen at a rate of one every seven and a half minutes in London.
Figures show gangs and crooks took 70,137 mobiles last year — 192 a day.
That is up a third from the 52,000 nicked in 2023, Met Police statistics show.
Phone thefts are now a £50million underworld industry, with most flogged or disassembled for parts in China.
Home Office figures show 90 per cent of all “theft from a person” crimes in London go unsolved, with a crook charged in only one per cent of cases.
The unsolved figure is 86 per cent in England and Wales.
The Met is using tracking tech and putting plain-clothed officers in the West End and Westminster, where 40 per cent of all thefts occur.
The City of London force is deploying bike-mounted police.
Anna McEntee, at Compare the Market, said: “Londoners and those visiting the capital will be concerned by the substantial rise in phone thefts last year.
“Criminals are becoming increasingly brazen, often using mopeds or e-bikes to make a quick getaway.”
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